Dangerous Game
by HeeroWZero
Summary: What will be discovered when one of Quatre's research facilities is suspected of producing chemical weapons? How does Dorothy fit into all of this? Mild use of 'bad language' throughout.
1. Chance Meeting

# Dangerous Game

[By HeeroWZero][1]

* * *

Quatre Winner was utterly bored with his work. In the few months he'd held the position he found it to be mostly enjoyable. Helping to build a new colony was something he really liked doing. Laying the foundation for a place where people could work, play, love and generally live their lives was exciting to him. When he first came on the job it was mostly the work aspect: directing the laborers, distributing the resources, solving the little problems along the way. But now that the redesigned plans were being debated upon in committee after committee, he could do little more than sit on his hands and hope for approval.

In the past, Quatre would have felt better just knowing he was not alone in his plight, but the fact was that he may as well have been. Sure, he had managed to make some new friends among his co-workers, but none of them understood him. They often chided him and wondered why he hadn't taken over his family's business. He told them he had no real interest in it, which he didn't, and had left it in the capable hands of his sisters. Secretly, he had other reasons for taking this job instead. He saw it as a way to repay the colony citizens for the destruction he had caused while under the influence of the ZERO system. Only a select group of people understood the person that was Quatre Winner and it had been much too long since he had seen any of them. Well, that wasn't completely true.

A couple weeks ago he had flown out to a neighboring colony when the circus had come to the area, and along with it Catherine and Trowa. It had been nice to see them again and catch up on everything he had missed. But of course, he had too much time and they had too little before they had to move on. Quatre had not seen the others for much longer. Relena managed to write when she could and Duo and Hilde stayed in touch. Heero, of course, had disappeared again and he knew that Sally, Wufei, Noin, Zechs, and Lady Une were busy with their Preventer duties. That left only Dorothy. He hadn't seen her since shortly after the war ended back in AC195. He often found himself wondering how she was doing and what she was up to. Not _just_ her, of course, but mostly her.

His thoughts were interrupted by a shrill beep. He had an incoming video call. Quatre strode slowly away from the window he had been staring out of and over to the desk.

"Yes? This is Quatre."

"Hello there, my friend."

"Winston! How are you?"

"Well, I'm doing just fine, but I'm afraid I'm the bearer of bad news. The committee didn't make any progress at all with our plans today. In fact, with all of their bickering, they may have set us back another week or two."

Quatre sighed and hung his head.

"I see. Well, thanks anyway for letting me know."

"Sure thing. You know, you look kinda beat. Maybe you need a vacation or something. Anyway, I'll catch ya later!"

Quatre ended the transmission and sat back in his chair, propping his feet up on the corner of the desk.

*No, not a vacation. I need to leave this behind entirely.

* * *

Dorothy Catalonia sipped idly at her drink. Her mission was not going well by any stretch of the imagination. At first, she had flat turned down the assignment and discounted it as complete nonsense. But after a few hours of mulling it over in her thoughts, she'd gone back and practically begged Lady Une to forgive her and assign her the mission. If Quatre was up to something, she wanted to be the first to know. Not so that she could rub it in his face, but simply so she didn't have to hear it from someone else, bias attached.

So here she sat at a restaurant bar feeling depressed. Part of her was wishing she could have stayed with her initial decision and part of her wanted to just get the whole thing over with so she could prove she'd been right all along. But so far, it looked like there were in fact chemical weapons being developed at the Winner facilities in Italy.

*I hope he's not involved. Please don't let him be a part of this.*

If someone had heard her thoughts and asked her why, she would have said that she held a deep respect for him, but she would have been lying. Deep yes...respect it was not. Dorothy loved Quatre Raberba Winner for all she was worth. True, he had no reason at all to return the feeling, in fact he had reason to hate her, but she couldn't help wondering if he felt the same way she did. But that was part of why she was depressed. She was like Heero in that she was completely to her missions, though not so extreme as he was, but also like Relena in that she had fallen head over heels for a Gundam pilot and there was nothing she could do about it. Of course, she could conceal it better than the former Queen of the world, but that was beside the point. Her feelings and emotions were swirling around in her head, tearing at her sanity. She let out a mournful sign and returned to her drink.

"Hey there lil' lady."

Dorothy's head turned slightly toward the man now sitting immediately to her right. He was a big man, probably six and a half feet tall, about two hundred fifty, two hundred sixty pounds, mid twenties. His large arms and square jaw made him look like the stereotypical football player.

*Great. Just what I need. A big, ugly, drunken moron trying to pick me up.*

Dorothy turned back to her drink without a word, but he pressed on.

"You look depressed. Anything I can do to help?"

"No."

"Aw, come on. Gimmie a chance here. Big Al will make you feel lots better!"

* * *

In a darkened corner of the restaurant, a young man poked at the food on his plate. The Tuscan Steak and Fettuccine Alfredo were excellent, but he didn't have the appetite he thought he did. Perhaps leaving his job had been the wrong thing to do, though it seemed like a good idea at the time. Maybe he should have waited a little longer before throwing in the towel. A week or two might have made all the difference in the world.

Regardless of whether it was a good idea or not, the truth of the matter was that he had quit and there was nothing he could or even cared to do about it. He was about to ask the waitress for the check when a small commotion at the bar caught his attention.

* * *

"Come on now. What can Big Al do for ya?"

Dorothy moved her hand quickly before he had the chance to grab it.

"Big Al had better keep his hands to himself if he knows what's good for him."

"Come off it! You're not waitin' on anyone."

"Maybe I am."

"Bullshit! Who? Who you waitin' for, huh?"

"She's waiting for me."

Both heads snapped around at the sound of the voice behind them. To Dorothy's surprise, Quatre stood an arm's length away in all of his nearly six foot glory. He was wearing a white, short sleeved knit polo with his hands in the pockets of his khaki slacks. She noted he was still a slim guy, but he had definitely put on some muscle doing whatever it was he was doing. The sight threw her for a loop.

*Wow! Chemical weapons or not, he's still gorgeous!*

"Who the hell are you?"

"I'm a friend."

"Oh yeah? Well beat it, friend. Me an' the lady here are havin' a talk."

"That;s not what I would call it."

"The hell do you know?!"

The man lunged at Quatre, who deftly sidestepped the attack sending the man stumbling into a nearby empty table.

"Oh you're gonna get it now!"

Al threw punch after punch at Quatre, but the Gundam pilot easily avoided the drunken onslaught.

"Just calm down and we'll talk about this."

"Shut your mouth, pretty boy!"

He kept up the assault until Quatre had his fill.

"I don't want to do this, but you're not leaving me much of a choice."

As Big Al's arm flew past his ear, Quatre balled his hand into a fist and struck him squarely in the nose. The bigger man tumbled to the floor with a crash and didn't move. Quatre rubbed at his stinging knuckles and noticed the bartender walking in his direction.

"Um, I'm sorry about that."

The older man behind the counter gave him a wink.

"Sorry for what? I didn't see anything. As far as I know, he fell off his stool and hit his face on a table."

"You mean you're not upset?"

"Upset?! I should say not! Hell, next time you come by I'll give you a free dinner if you like. Me and some of the other guys have been wanting to that for ages."

Quatre felt thoroughly embarrassed when a handful of people at the bar and a few of the tables started applauding him.

"Well, um, thanks I guess. But what about..."

"Ah, don't worry about him. We'll get him cleaned up and straightened out. You just forget all about it."

Quatre just scratched his head and shrugged. The bartender and the others went back about their business as if nothing had happened.

"Well...Mister Winner. We meet again."

He turned to see Dorothy half smiling, half smirking at him and grinned back.

"So it would seem."

"I could have taken care of myself you know."

"Um, yes...well. He did kinda come at me. Sorry about that."

Dorothy found herself giggling.

"Even after all this time you still apologize for everything you do. Why is that?"

"Well...I, uh...that is..."

Dorothy laughed again.

"Forget I asked. So, to what do I owe the honor?"

"Well, I have a table at the back. Would you care to join me?"

As much as she wanted to jump at him and say yes, she thought she should be a bit more reserved than that.

"Well, I suppose. It's bound to be better than sitting here by myself."

Quatre led Dorothy to his table and the two sat across from each other. They talked about this and that for nearly two hours. The war, the "Dekim Barton Incident" as it had come to be called, but they managed to keep from talking about work, since neither of them wanted to talk about their job or lack there of. At about eleven thirty, Dorothy decided she had better leave.

"Well, Quatre, it has certainly been nice to see you again and talk with you, but I think I had better be on my way."

"Oh. Do you have a place to stay then? I'm checked in at the hotel up the road. They know my family around here so they gave me the biggest suite they have. There's more than enough room if you need a place to stay."

"Why Quatre Raberba Winner, are you trying to get me into bed?"

"N-N-No! That's not what I meant!"

Dorothy smiled at his look of unadulterated shock. She'd only been half joking. If he had said yes it wouldn't have made much difference to her.

"I'm only joking. But yes, I do have somewhere to go. Thank you for the offer though. That was sweet of you. Anyway, I have to be up early so I think I'll leave before I give you have a coronary."

"Oh? What do you do?"

*Damn! I almost got out of here without lying to him.*

"Well, I'm...I do...research."

*There. Not completely a lie.*

"Really? Say, you're not employed at my family's biochem research facility near here, are you?"

"Well, no. Not exactly. But my work does occasionally take me there."

"Hmmm. I see. Well, I'd better not keep you if you have an early morning. Oh, that reminds me. I was going to visit the Preventers headquarters tomorrow and check in on everyone. Anyone you want me to say hello to for you?"

*What? Going where? Hmmm...that's OK...that's fine. If he finds out, he finds out. Just act natural.*

"Um, well, I guess say hi to everyone."

"I'll do that. And thank you for talking with me tonight."

"You're welcome"

"Good night, Miss Dorothy."

"Good night to you, Mister Winner."

With that, Dorothy bowed her head and left. Quatre sat for a moment staring at nothing in particular. Then, with a smile and a wave to the bartender, he paid his bill and walked out the door.

* * *

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Gundam Wing. It is copyrighted by people who have a lot more money than I do. This was written for fun and for the fans of the series. The storyline is mine, the characters, other than HeeroWZero originals, are not.

NOTES: Rather interesting thus far, wouldn't you say? Some notes on setting. The first part is obviously in space...pick a colony. It doesn't matter really. We'll say it's somewhere near where he went nuts with the Twin Buster Rifle. That's as good a place as any. Down on Earth, they're in Italy. I don't know where specifically. It's a small, semi-ritzy town kind of out on the edge of some suburban area. The Winner biochem facility is nearby, but far enough out of town so that if it explodes, nothing too serious will happen to the town. I'm gonna say that the Preventer HQ is somewhere on the northern coast of Europe...maybe the eastern part of Germany near Denmark...right about where I'd put the Sanc Kingdom. I think that's about it. So tell me, what did you think of Quatre getting into a bar fight (sort of)???

Comments and criticisms are welcome. Please send them to **[HeeroWZero@hotmail.com][1]** and be sure to include your name so I can get back to you. Thanks for reading!

   [1]: mailto:HeeroWZero@hotmail.com



	2. Discovery

# Dangerous Game

[By HeeroWZero][1]

* * *

"Excuse me, Lady Une?"

"Yes, Noin? What is it?"

Lucrezia Noin stepped around the door and walked into Lady Une's office.

"We might have a problem. Preventer Storm hasn't checked in yet."

Lady Une looked up from the file folder she was looking through and saw Noin's expression of concern.

"Are you sure? When was she supposed to check in last?"

"Yesterday afternoon; almost twenty hours ago. Do you think she maybe just forgot?"

"Hmmm...not likely. She's usually pretty good about that."

"Then maybe she found out something about Quatre that she didn't like."

"I think it's more likely something found her. Do we have anyone available to send-"

"Hello, ladies!"

The two turned to see an energetic Quatre standing in the doorway.

"I thought I heard my name. How are you two?"

"Quatre? What are you doing here?"

"Well, I thought I would drop by to see you, Miss Une. And you as well, Miss Noin. Actually, I'm looking forward to seeing everyone."

"Oh? And how is...everyone?"

"This is my first official stop, although I did see Trowa and Catherine a few weeks ago. They're doing well with the circus. And Dorothy seems to be doing just fine. She asked me to say hi to you guys."

"Dorothy?! You saw Dorothy?"

Quatre hesitated a bit, unsure of Noin's reaction.

"Um, yeah."

Noin tried to calm herself and speak in an even tone.

"When was this?"

"It was last night actually. I met her by coincidence. We were at the same restaurant."

"When, uh...what time did you last see her?"

By now, Quatre was getting suspicious.

"I think about eleven thirty or midnight. Why? What's this all about?"

Lady Une thought deeply about her next move. If she was wrong, the consequences would be severe. But the fact that Quatre had come and was standing in her office with friendly intentions told her that she could trust him. She made a judgement call and hoped she was right.

"Quatre, there are a few things I think we should tell you."

* * *

Quatre's head was beginning to hurt from everything they were telling him.

"So tell me what's going on again."

"Too much to take in at once, huh? Well, like I explained before, our attention was brought to several purchases of large amounts of chemicals. We haven't been able to identify our informant, but it doesn't make much difference. Howard occasionally does some consulting work for us and he was able to trace the chemicals through money transfers and shipping records to your facility in Italy."

"What's so strange about that? It's a biochemical research facility. They would naturally be buying chemicals."

"Yes. That is very reasonable, but we did our homework on this one. We wouldn't have been told about it if there wasn't something wrong. As it turns out these chemicals are harmless by themselves, but when combined, they form a base for chemical weapons. Several of the compounds purchased would not be used in a facility such as yours is."

Quatre let that sink in for a moment before deciding to move on.

"OK, so let's say somebody, perhaps a group of somebodies, is making chemical weapons at my family's plant. Your next move was to send in this Preventer Storm to investigate, correct?"

"Exactly right. She is highly skilled and one of our best."

Quatre quickly put two and two together.

"Oh no...don't tell me...not Dorothy?"

"Yes, Dorothy is Preventer Storm."

Quatre held his face in his hands. He was feeling particularly foolish for some reason.

"But why didn't she tell me?"

"She probably wasn't sure which side you were on. Up until fifteen minutes ago I wasn't certain myself."

"No, no, no! What if something happens to her? What if she gets hurt or even... It would be all my fault!"

"Quatre, what are you saying? That you _did_ have something to do with this mess?"

"No, of course not, Miss Noin. But don't you see? It's my family's facility, right? We could have had better security, done more thorough background checks, hired more trustworthy people. I'm sure there's something we could have done differently. Something, anything, to have stopped this from even starting in the first place."

"Don't be ridiculous, Quatre. You can't blame yourself any more than we can blame ourselves."

"Noin is right. There's no way you could have predicted this would happen."

Quatre calmed down a bit upon realizing that they were probably right.

"I suppose, but I still feel awful. So how's she doing anyway? Has she made any progress?"

"Well, um, yes. Some. She reported a couple days ago that she had located several likely places where any chemical weapons could be stored. She was going to try to narrow it down so we can send in a recovery team."

"Why do I get the feeling there's a 'but' coming?"

"But...she didn't check in yesterday."

"It's not as bad as it sounds. I mean, she did see you last night.. Did you tell her you were coming here?"

"Yes, I did."

"Well that's it! She must have figured you would tell us she was OK."

"But Miss Noin, if she didn't trust me enough to tell me she is a Preventer, why would she trust me to check her in with you?"

"He's right, Noin. Besides, she was supposed to check in hours before they would have met."

"I see your point."

Quatre scratched his head thoughtfully.

"Do either of you know when her next check in time is?"

Lady Une looked at her watch.

"Should be in the next hour or so. I take it you're planning to hang around until then?"

Quatre nodded slowly. It wasn't how he had planned to spend his day, but he couldn't very well leave. Not with one of his friends in danger. Lady Une suggested he try to relax in one of the vacant offices and told him that she or Noin would come get him in an hour. Realizing he didn't have much of a choice, he found an empty office and began his wait.

*It's too long. Too much can happen in an hour.*

* * *

Soon after Quatre entered the vacant room, he spotted the computer on the desk and situated himself in front of it. He pressed the power button and brought the machine to life. Finding the internal phone directory, he dialed Noin as asked for temporary access to the Preventer databases. In another minute he was logged in and pulling up relevant case files and the blueprints for the biochem building in Italy. Using the information Dorothy provided, he began to eliminate rooms from her list of possibilities as best he could.

Two of the rooms he dropped from the list because he knew them to be filled with maintenance equipment, extra supplies, and spare parts for the machinery throughout the building. Another three were crossed off because there were heating ducts and hot water pipes running through the room. The chemicals would need to be refrigerated and one didn't do that my blowing hot air on them. That left four medium sized rooms, all clumped closely together in the same hall, where the weapons could conceivably be stored. All four could possibly have the weapons inside, depending on how many had been produced.

Quatre made a note of the surrounding layout. There was a small service elevator for the cleaning and maintenance staff, two separate stairwells at either end of the hall, and a maintenance room that acted as a control point for the water, gas, ventilation, and power systems on the floor. If he needed to, he could set off some explosives in the room. The exploding gas lines would burn away the poison. He would only use that as a last resort though.

Shortly after finding a notebook and a pen to write everything down, he was called to Lady Une's office over the public address system in the building. He quickly scribbled his notes on the pad of paper and walked the short distance to Lady Une's office. The door was open, so he took it as an invitation to walk right on in. He looked around, but didn't see her anywhere.

"Hello? Miss Une?"

To his left he heard a muffled voice come from behind a door.

"Yes, I'm here."

Lady Une came out of her side room with a towel hanging around her neck. Quatre noticed her hair was slightly damp.

"Taking a shower I presume?"

"I've been going through paperwork for about seventy hours now. I've slept, but this has been my first chance to clean up."

"I see. Well, I heard my name called over the PA. Is there any news from Dorothy?"

"No, not yet. She's due to check in very soon, so I thought we would go down to the operations room and wait there."

"Alright. Shall we go then?"

Lady Une led the way to the operations room. As they started down the hall, Quatre remembered the notebook he had brought with him.

"While you were taking your shower, I asked Miss Noin for temporary access to your computer systems. I don't know whether I should have or not, but I went through the files and managed to narrow down some of the rooms on Dorothy's list. You may want to take a look at this later, if you get the chance."

"Really? Well, um, alright then. I'll look it over. It should help if we have to send in a team to take care of anything that turns up."

A few minutes later they were standing in the operations room. The dark room was lit only by a few desk lights and the glow of the monitors at each station. Quatre and Lady Une hovered over the communication station; Lady Une stood patiently while Quatre paced nervously. The two used the time to catch up on what had been going on aside from the situation in Italy. They talked about their other friends, the colonies, how Mariemaia was getting along, and so on. Ten minutes of talking and waiting became twenty. Twenty turned into forty-five. After an hour they became worried.

"Has she ever not checked in before?"

"Only yesterday. She's usually very good about checking in.

"So what now?"

Quatre was getting jumpy and Lady Une began chewing on her fingernails. It was a bad habit she was trying to get rid of, but it always surfaced when she was upset or nervous. In this case, it was both.

"Well, normally we would send in a few people, but we haven't got a few people to send. As I said before, Duo and Hilde are on that vacation cruise and Noin just left to meet Zechs for that arbitration assignment. Sally and Wufei just finished their last mission, but they won't be back for another eight hours."

While Lady Une thought about what to do, Quatre became very still. Images were forming in his head of Dorothy caught or dead, of the world strangled by chemical toxins. With steeled resolve, he walked silently out of the room, unnoticed by anyone. When Lady Une found him twenty minutes later, he was in the equipment room stuffing a small duffel bag and the zippered pockets of his black jumpsuit.

"There you are. I've been looking all over for you. What exactly are you doing.?"

Quatre gave no answer, but he really didn't have to. It was quite obvious he intended to go after Dorothy.

"You don't have to do this."

"Yes I do, Miss Une. Please try to understand. I did not cause this, but I didn't prevent it from happening either. The least I can do is stop it from going any further, before my friend gets killed...if she's not dead already."

"I can't let you do this, Quatre."

"Why not? You told me that it's not my fault, that I couldn't have seen it coming. That's true, I concede that. But if I don't go now to do what I can to stop it, whatever happens _will_ be my fault. I know I can stop it. I have to try."

She had figured he'd say something like that. It was true of course. He would blame himself if he didn't go. They would both feel guilty for not having at least tried and made some kind of effort. But she still did not want him to go on his own. She tried a last ditch effort to get him to reconsider.

"You are not a Preventer. I can't have you involved in a Preventer operation."

Quatre finished packing his duffel and turned to face her. His eyes were deadly serious.

"All due respect, Miss Une, but if that is the case, you had better give me a codename. I am going with or without your support."

* * *

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Gundam Wing. It is copyrighted by people who have a lot more money than I do. This was written for fun and for the fans of the series. The storyline is mine, the characters, other than HeeroWZero originals, are not.

Comments and criticisms are welcome. Please send them to **[HeeroWZero@hotmail.com][1]** and be sure to include your name so I can get back to you. Thanks for reading!

   [1]: mailto:HeeroWZero@hotmail.com



	3. Chance Meeting Take 2

# Dangerous Game

[By HeeroWZero][1]

* * *

Quatre hid himself behind a tree fifty yards from the four-story terraced building. His black attire and the fact that it was fairly dark made him all but invisible to anyone who might be looking in his direction.

*Sneaking into my own building. This is right up there with my codename.*

On the short flight from the Preventer headquarters back to Italy, he had tried to relax by thinking of a new codename for himself. The one Lady Une had given him wasn't very original, but he had hardly wanted to tell her so. Duo would probably say it was cheesy or lame. That said, he didn't completely hate it, but he definitely needed to change it. Perhaps he would go with no codename at all since he couldn't really think of a better one.

But at the moment, Preventer Sandrock had other things to worry about. So far things had been easy. Now, the difficult task of getting into the building unseen lay before him. He had decided on a side entrance, a single door on the west wall. With his objective in sight, Quatre made his way toward the building. Barely ten feet from the door, he had to stop and duck behind a bush. The door he'd been going for had opened. A man in a uniform, presumably a security guard, stepped out, propped the door open with a small stone, and took a lighter and a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket. Quatre couldn't stop the grin that came to his face.

*Thank goodness for that no smoking policy. Still, I'll have to have a talk with the rest of my security people about this.*

Quatre crept up silently behind the man. A chop to the right spot on the neck and the guard collapsed into his arms. The young pilot whispered an apology to the unconscious man as he lay him safely behind a large tree and slipped into the building.

*Now to find Dorothy.*

* * *

In a darkened room on the first floor, illuminated only by the glow of several monitors, two men were having a heated conversation. The short, stocky man in the lab coat was very nervous while his counterpart, a larger, well-muscled man, moved calmly.

"What?! Are you serious?"

"Yeah."

"She's a Preventer? No, this is bad. This is worse than bad. We should stop this whole thing. I've made more than he can possibly need!"

The large man stepped forward, closing the distance between them and pressing his finger into the scientist's chest.

"If Mista Tarelli don't get his whole shipment..."

"Yes, I know what will happen. But what about her? They're on to what's going on here."

The tall man walked toward the door and pulled a revolver from his sportcoat.

"You jus' worry 'bout the science, ya geek. I'll worry 'bout the girl."

* * *

Quatre squeezed his body up against a wall when he heard a door open in the next hall. Peering around the corner, he saw a big, burly man step out of one of the rooms. The Gundam pilot's eye was drawn to the gun in his hand. Once the man disappeared down another hall, Quatre quickly moved to the room he had come out of. Stepping inside the security surveillance room, he saw another man in a lab coat. He rushed at the scientist and held him tightly against the wall.

"W-W-Who are you?"

"This building is supposed to be empty except for security personnel. Why are you here? Who are you working for?"

The scientist was shaking uncontrollably. His fear had taken over. The young man before him was deceptively strong and very angry.

"T-Tarelli. Gino Tarelli. He wants me to make him chemical weapons."

"Why?"

Quatre eased his grip slightly.

"I'm not sure exactly. I heard something about a guy who killed his brother. The man in crazy!"

"Then why help him?"

"Because he threatened my family. I'm doing this so they stay safe and unharmed. Besides, I figured the Preventers would stop him. I...I sent them some information in an anonymous letter."

"So you're the informant. Alright, get out of here. Go to the Preventers headquarters and tell them everything you told me, everything you know."

"Yes, of course. Ummm...that other man, the one that just left. He's one of Tarelli's thugs. I think he's going upstairs to kill that Preventer girl.

The scientist then dashed out of them room and down the hall toward the nearest exit. Quatre ran in the opposite direction as fast as he could go after finding Dorothy on the security monitors.

*No he's not. Not if I can help it.*

Quatre wondered if he could make it in time and ran faster.

* * *

In a lab on the second floor of the building, Dorothy was scribbling notes on a pad of paper and periodically looking into a microscope. She had to pretend to be busy. When she had come into the building twenty minutes earlier, she had been spotted by one of the other scientists. He had asked why she was working so late and she had replied that she wanted to finish something she had started earlier.

So now she was acting for the cameras, just in case. In fifteen or twenty minutes she would check to see if he was still around. If not, she would do what she had come for. A short distance down the hall was a group of four rooms. By process of elimination, she had determined that any chemical weapons would be stored in one or all of the rooms. She knew she would eventually get her chance to find out.

What she didn't know was that there was a large man on the other side of the laboratory observation window. She finally saw him out of the corner of her eye as he leveled the barrel of his gun at her. That was when something hard hit her in the small of her back. She landed on the ground as the glass of the window shattered and fell around her. A few moments later she realized that something heavy was pressing down on her. She looked back over her shoulder to see Quatre. He had arrived just in time to dive at her from behind, knocking her out of the way. The bullet, meanwhile, had shattered the window and found itself a home in the wall at the opposite end of the lab.

"Are you OK?"

"I think so."

"Quick, get behind this cabinet."

The two scrambled along the floor to the other side of a steel filing cabinet, away from the window and their attacker. Quatre pulled out a gun and lined up a shot at the man around the cabinet. He pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. He tried twice more with the same result. Upon further examination, it became painfully obvious that he hadn't loaded the gun. Dorothy frowned at him.

"I've heard of 'safety first', but that's just ridiculous."

She reached under her skirt and pulled out her own gun, similar to the one Heero had been known to carry. Quatre's wide eyes gave away his shock, but she just stared back at him.

"What?"

"Uh, nothing. Nothing at all."

It took only one shot to send the big man to the floor with a hole in his forehead. Satisfied that he was there permanently, Dorothy turned her gun on Quatre.

"What are you doing here?"

Instinctively, Quatre's hands shot up in a gesture of surrender.

"Hey! Hold on a minute. I'm on _your_ side."

"How do I know that?"

"I just saved your life didn't I?"

Dorothy lowered her gun and Quatre warily put his arms down. The two stood up and dusted themselves off.

"I suppose. But then, why _are_ you here?"

"Preventer Sandrock, at your service."

Dorothy stared at him with a bemused smile.

"Preventer Sandrock?"

Quatre blushed and looked down, finding his boots particularly interesting.

"It was the best Lady Une could do at the time."

"I see. Well then...Preventer Sandrock...shall we look for some chemical weapons?"

As they walked down the hall Dorothy started to snicker. Quatre glanced at her questioningly. The look on his face only made things worse and Dorothy's resolve broke down. She tried to apologize between her fits of laughter. Quatre simply rolled his eyes.

"It's not _that_ funny!"

* * *

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Gundam Wing. It is copyrighted by people who have a lot more money than I do. This was written for fun and for the fans of the series. The storyline is mine, the characters, other than HeeroWZero originals, are not.

NOTES: I'm sorry. I really couldn't come up with a better codename for Quatre.....so I blamed it on Lady Une! That last part wasn't really planned. It just kind of happened in my head, so I wrote it down. We all need a little humor, even if it is at Quatre's expense.

Comments and criticisms are welcome. Please send them to **[HeeroWZero@hotmail.com][1]** and be sure to include your name so I can get back to you. Thanks for reading!

   [1]: mailto:HeeroWZero@hotmail.com



	4. Showdown In Italy

# Dangerous Game

[By HeeroWZero][1]

* * *

By the time they reached the cluster of rooms, Dorothy had stopped laughing and was focused on the task at hand. Quatre took a set of lockpicks from one of his pockets and went to work at the cover that sealed the security panel for the door. He had the codes memorized, but getting to the keypad to punch them in was the hard part. It took a couple minutes, but the two were soon inside the first room. It was devoid of chemical weapons, as was the second room. In the third, however, they found about a dozen average-sized crates containing canisters marked "biohazard". Inspecting the fourth room, they found a few more. Looking at the crates sitting in the middle of the room, Dorothy noticed they were all stamped with a small logo.

"G. Tarelli? I think I've heard of him. Isn't he one of those stereotypical mobster-types?"

"Yes, I think you're right. Apparently, someone killed his brother, whether on purpose or by accident, and he's planning to use these to get his revenge."

"Seriously? What kind of a nut is this guy?"

"I wouldn't say I'm a nut."

Quatre and Dorothy hadn't noticed the figure that had walked up behind them.

"Well, well. I come to check on my little science geek and what do I find? A couple of cute blondes nosin' around in my business."

Tarelli stood about twelve feet away from them with his gun pointed at the two Preventers. Another five feet behind him was the door. Quatre's brow wrinkled as he looked over the situation in his mind.

*Damn. What do we do now? We can't risk using guns in here and mine's not loaded anyway. He's too far away for any hand to hand fighting so where does that leave us? Hmmm...those boxes on the sides of the room might give us some cover, but how do we distract him?*

There wasn't much they could do, but Quatre developed an idea and hoped Dorothy would play along.

"Mister Tarelli, I take it. I think you had better get your facts straight. Dorothy is not cute."

"Huh? What do you mean I'm not cute?"

Quatre looked over at Dorothy, who was either playing along really well or was genuinely confused.

"Well, you're not."

"Of course I am! How could I not be cute?"

"You're just...not."

"I am to."

"Are not."

"Am to."

"Are not."

Tarelli quickly grew tired of this and fired a shot at the ceiling. As Quatre had hoped, Dorothy used the distraction and her quick reflexes to reach for her gun and fire a few quick shots while she and Quatre ran to opposite sides of the room, ducking behind the boxes there. One of Dorothy's bullets hit Tarelli in the knee. He fell to the ground screaming in pain and firing his gun randomly into the air until the clip was emptied. The last shot he fired hit one of the crates. All three looked on in horror as a yellow cloud hissed out of the punctured canister. While Tarelli could barely crawl, Quatre and Dorothy sprinted for the door. Tarelli was locked inside to face his death when Dorothy slammed the door closed to prevent the gas from escaping.

"Damn! That moron hit the crates! What do we do now? I don't think this door was meant to contain something like this."

Quatre's mind raced and he thought back to the plan he had come up with back at Preventer headquarters. He made a decision to follow through with it and calmly checked his pockets.

"Here, take this radio. I want you to get out of the building as fast as you can and contact Lady Une. I think I know a way to stop the gas from spreading."

Quatre pulled out several small remote mines and a detonator from one of his many pockets.

"What are you planning?"

"The gas lines on this floor collect in the maintenance room nearby. If they explode, they'll take the whole floor and the chemicals with them."

"That should work, but what's the range on that remote?"

"In a building like this the range is going to be reduced, but I should be fine."

"No. No way. It's much too dangerous. There has to be another way."

"Well, this is all I can think of at the moment and we really don't have time to come up with something else. Now please go. I'll be fine, I promise you. Please trust me on this."

The look in his eyes was the same as the one she had seen on Libra years ago. He wasn't concerned for himself. He was concerned about everyone except himself. When he got like this, there was no talking him out of it.

"You know I trust you."

Dorothy hesitated for a moment before starting toward the stairwell. She stopped a few feet away and turned back to him.

"You'd better not die on me."

With one last look, she tore down the stairs at break-neck speed. Quatre smiled and rushed down the hall, loading his gun on the way. He didn't bother with the lock on the maintenance room, opting instead for a bullet through the handle. Inside was a maze of pipes and wires lining the walls and ceiling. Fortunately, the gas pipes were color-coded yellow and marked as such. He attached the mines directly to the pipes and threw a couple down the hall for good measure. The whole process took under two minutes.

*Dorothy should be out by now. Let's hope this works.*

Quatre tightened his grip on the detonator and with his now loaded gun, he shot out the window at the end of the hall. He was on the second floor, but he hardly had a choice. Quatre sucked in a deep breath and sprinted toward the window. As he jumped through it, he pressed the detonator button. The initial explosions were relatively limited in their damage, but the secondary explosion if the gas pipes was enough to tear the entire top half of the building clear off. Quatre, meanwhile, hit the ground hard, bouncing and rolling to a stop at a safe distance from the building.

* * *

Upon hearing the explosions, Dorothy quickly ended her radio conversation with Lady Une, almost cutting her off. She stood in awe of the flaming wreckage before setting off in search of Quatre. Running to the opposite side of the building she found him lying spread-eagle on his back in some long grass, staring up at the starry sky above. She kneeled next to him and spoke in a calm, almost conversational tone.

"Anything broken?"

Quatre moved his eyes to look at her.

"Well, no. I don't think so, but I am going to have more than a few bruises."

Dorothy stifled a laugh as Quatre slowly and awkwardly lifted himself to a sitting position. The two sat and stared a the burning building for a moment.

"So did you get ahold of Lady Une?"

"Yes. She wasn't very happy with me. I told her about what we found and about your plan as well. She said she would dispatch a clean-up crew to take care of the details and tie up any loose ends."

"Well, that's good. At least we don't have to do it."

"Right. Um, I'm sorry I lied to you last night. I should have told you."

Quatre waved his hand dismissively.

"No apology necessary. You did what you had to do. You didn't know if you could trust me. I understand."

"But I do trust you. It's just that this whole mission really messed up my head. I started doubting the things I shouldn't have."

"Oh, I see."

Dorothy hesitated a moment before asking her next question.

"You didn't mean what you said back there, did you?"

"When?"

"In the storage room...when you said I wasn't cute."

Quatre's face turned a light shade of pink as he groped for an answer.

"Uh, well...yes and no."

"Huh?"

"Well, I wouldn't say you're cute. More like...well...beautiful."

"Oh..."

By this time, both Quatre and Dorothy were blushing furiously. A long, awkward silence passed.

"So, are you insured for this kind of thing?"

Quatre couldn't help but laugh.

"I think so. If not, I think the business profits should be able to cover it."

Another moment of silence.

"Well, dear Mister Winner-"

"Dorothy, I thought I asked you to call me Quatre."

"Alright then, Quatre. What do we do now. Lady Une said we don't have to report back for another twelve hours."

Quatre pondered that for a moment. The flight wouldn't take very long, so they could probably get some rest in the town down the road. But there was something more immediate that needed to be taken care of.

"Are you hungry? I now this great place where we can get a free dinner..."

* * *

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Gundam Wing. It is copyrighted by people who have a lot more money than I do. This was written for fun and for the fans of the series. The storyline is mine, the characters, other than HeeroWZero originals, are not.

NOTES: Well, that's it. What did you think? Too cheesy? It got a little fluffy there at the end...sorry 'bout that. Oh well. This makes three complete fics now! Yay! Now I can get back to work on my prequel to the first one I wrote. I promise I'm working on it! Please don't hurt me!

Comments and criticisms are welcome. Please send them to **[HeeroWZero@hotmail.com][1]** and be sure to include your name so I can get back to you. Thanks for reading!

   [1]: mailto:HeeroWZero@hotmail.com



End file.
